


Blood and Bone

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: Born for Pain [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, Pain, Stabbing, Torture, not much fluff, sorry - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 17:38:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14857191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: Project Kuron runs to completion and Keith is captured. What ensues is... not good for his health.





	Blood and Bone

Chapter 1

Rustling chains. Sharp pain in wrists and on his head, as well as dull aches that he knew to be bruises.

Keith blearily opened his eyes, one swollen shut. He surveyed the inside of a Galra cell bleakly.

_I won’t fight you, Shiro!_

_Glowing eyes._

_A smile that was not his friend’s smile._

Where was he? A Galra cell, but who had him? It- it had to be Haggar. Quiznek. He would’ve preferred Lotor. Lotor was slightly more sane, and twice as likely to be pulling an elaborate trap on their enemies.

Keith sighed. What did they _want_ him for? Information on the paladins? Haggar could’ve gotten that information easily by allowing Shiro to stay undercover.

Information on the Blade? Yes, that had to be it. She couldn’t get that information so easily. So, she targeted the most easily captured Blade, and… he _couldn’t_ tell her anything. No matter what.

Xxx

Champion hesitated outside of the prisoner’s cell. He had come here to prove to himself that Shiro was dead and only Champion remained, but… he wasn’t strong enough. He said a silent apology to Haggar for his weakness and hurried off down the hallways, as far away from the one reminder of his old life.

Xxx

A druid strapped Keith to a chair, finally releasing whatever magic had been holding him in place. Keith eyed a nearby rack of knives apprehensively. Normally, he liked knives. But he had a sneaking suspicion that those particular knives would be entering his flesh soon.

“Tell us where the Blade of Marmora’s base is,” the druid hissed, “And we’ll let you go back to the castle which you love so much.”

“No. You aren’t going to be able to keep me here forever! The others will come for me!”

The druid gave a hissing laugh. “The paladins and the Blade cannot help you. Not without destroying this ship, and therefore you, anyway.”

“Lotor then,” Keith amended, “He has the whole Galra army at his command!”

The druid laughed, then hit a switch and a video feed from another room lit up, showing a communication between Haggar and- and Lotor.

“Get the whereabouts of the Blade’s base from him,” Lotor ordered, “Once we’ve eradicated the Blade, the paladins and their insipid rebellion will take no time to defeat, especially with their leaders gone. The Galra Empire will rise again without the threat of _Voltron._ ”

The video screen shut off. Keith felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Lotor was planning on betraying them. He would kill the other paladins, and destroy the Blade of Marmora. No one would be able to rescue him.

The druid set the tip of a knife to the belly of Keith’s forearm carefully, almost lovingly. “Tell us where the Blade’s base is.

“No.”

The glittering knife traced a straight line from his elbow to wrist, leaving a red line behind. Keith bit his tongue. He wouldn’t scream. He wouldn’t give the bastards the satisfaction!

“The base?”

Keith shook his head, and the knife traced another line, about half an inch from the first. Keith’s fists clenched as he struggled to keep silent. He wouldn’t speak. He sat there, unable to do anything but retain his dignity as his arm was sliced to ribbons.

Xxx

Keith let a single tear roll down his face as blood dripped down his arms, the cruel chains digging into the cuts down on his wrist. He took some small amount of comfort in that he hadn’t screamed, or cried for mercy. If his missions with the Blade had done anything for him, they’d made him tough.

The door hissed open, and Axca entered, looking behind her nervously before closing the door. She released the chains holding Keith and caught him as his shaky legs collapsed, unable to hold his weight. She sat him down gently, taking his injured arm. He hissed and jerked it away, clutching it tight to his chest.

“Here, let me see.”

Axca gently but firmly stretched his arm out, probing the numerous cuts with gentle fingers.

“You were very brave,” she told him, “Even Zethrid was impressed with how you stayed silent.”

“I don’t know what game Haggar’s playing,” Keith croaked, “but I’m not telling you anything.”

“Haggar doesn’t know that I’m here. Well- I mean- she probably does- it’s hard to hide anything from her- but I didn’t tell her where I was going or ask permission.”

Keith snorted and then yelped and jerked his arm away as Axca dabbed the blood away.

“Stop struggling! I’m trying to help you!”

He grudgingly let her finish cleaning the blood away and then press a cloth to the cuts to stem the bleeding.

“Why?”

It was a simple question, but full of meaning. Why was Axca helping him? Why had she saved his life when he’d fought that Galra commander in front of the purple torch? Why did they keep running into each other?

“I don’t know. I just feel like I should,” Axca answered, “I just feel like… you’re important, somehow. And I don’t mean that you’re a paladin. I mean like you’re important to _me_ personally in some way.”

He nodded, and she raised him back to his feet, locking the manacles around his wrists.

“Do I have to?” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop them, childish and afraid. He didn’t want to go up by his wrists again; the chains tore at his wrists, and they pressed painfully on the cuts.

“I’m sorry,” Axca told him, and she truly _did_ sound sorry, “But I can’t let you stay down. Haggar will be suspicious if she’s not already.”

She pulled the chains up, and he bit back a cry of pain as they dug into his wrists.

“You should just tell them what they want to know,” Axca whispered as she left, “It’s only going to get worse for you.”

Xxx

Keith clenched his fists, biting his tongue so hard he tasted blood as the druid made a quick cut across his cheek.

“Come, now,” the druid hissed, “Surely it would be better… easier… if you would just tell us. The pain would stop, and wouldn’t you like that… yes… you would…”

“-No-” Keith choked, “No-”

“Mmm.”

The druid put the tip of his knife to the back of Keith’s neck, absentmindedly carving the insignia of the Galra Empire on his skin.

“It’s funny, how you thought that you could escape your heritage. And yet…” the druid spread its arms. “Here we are!”

It patted Keith’s check, and Keith bit its hand. It screeched, sending a bolt of lightning into his head. Once the world stopped spinning and tilting in front of Keith, he heard a cold voice, a voice that he knew, speaking to the druid.

Champion stopped in front of the broken paladin, so covered in blood that the boy barely looked human anymore. Champion felt a surge of pity and horror, but he pushed it down. That was just the pathetic remains of “Shiro” trying to emerge. He would show that whelp who was boss by confronting the black- or was he the red?- paladin.

The boy lifted his head slightly, peering at Champion through his swollen eye. “Shiro?” he croaked.

“Shiro’s gone,” Champion snarled, “And you would do well to remember that.”

The prisoner eyed him with a quiet intensity. “No,” he said softly, “He’s still in there. And I’m going to get him out.”

A sense of unease settled over Champion, so he reacted violently in order to hide his doubts. He seized the half-breed by the hair, wrenching his head so that he was looking Champion in the eye.

“Shiro. Is. Dead,” he snarled, smacking the boy’s head into the wall with each word.

“If he was,” the paladin responded evenly, “you wouldn’t be here.”

“He! Is! Dead! Get! That! In! To! Your! Thick! Skull!”

Champion released the boy’s hair in disgust, feeling vaguely guilty when the prisoner’s head sagged forward. All of Champion’s smashing of his head into the back of the chair had beaten him unconscious. Champion fought back a surge of regret and guilt. He was a _weapon_! Weapons didn’t feel regret! He fled the room before he could feel anything else.

xxx

Keith’s head lifted slightly when Axca opened the cell door, performing her usual check to see if she’d been followed before loosing him and seizing his injured hand, where the top joints of all four of his fingers were gone, sliced off by the druid’s knife.

“You can’t keep doing this,” she admonished him, “You’re not going to stay alive for much longer with these injuries! Just give up,” she pleaded, “Stop fighting. Tell them what they want to know, and they’ll-”

“We both know that they won’t let me go,” Keith said wearily, “If I tell them-”

“They won’t care what happens to you anymore if you tell them! I could take you with me! Perhaps I couldn’t let you go, but it would be better than this!”

“Live with the knowledge that I betrayed my friends and the universe? Sit like your pet and watch the universe get torn apart in your conquest? No. I’d rather die!”

“You’re being foolish and stubborn,” Axca shouted, “You can’t see the bigger picture! What do you hope to gain by this? Your friends also know the location of the Blade’s base! If you die here, it’ll only sentence one of _them_ to this fate! I’m offering you escape and a chance to live, and you’re just doing this for some sense of stubborn pride!”

“You don’t know anything about me,” Keith shouted back, wincing as the cuts on his cheeks stretched and tore, “I’m doing this for the universe! Do you even have any idea what Haggar is planning?!”

“I’m trying to take care of Zethrid, Ezor and myself! We already lost Narti, and we may as well have lost Lotor! I’m not risking anyone else!”

“Oh, _now_ who’s failing to look at the bigger picture,” Keith said acidly, “The whole universe can come crashing down on your ears, but as long as you and your two friends are safe, that doesn’t matter.”

“I’m looking out for number one,” Axca said coldly, “You’re not number one, and this is getting perilous for me. Back in the chains.”

Keith struggled to his feet and rammed his shoulder into Axca’s stomach in an attempt to break for the door. Axca caught him by the collar of his prison uniform and dragged him back to the manacles, locking his wrists in place despite his struggles. She hauled him back up and turned to go.

“Axca.”

She turned back around, her face cold. “What?”

“If you won’t let me go, then can you do something for me?”

“What?”

“Kill me. I’d rather die than tell them where the base is, but- it’s getting harder. And if I do tell them- it’ll be because there’s nothing left of me. You could take me after I told them, but I’d only be a shell. And that’s a fate that I’ll avoid at any cost.”

“I’m not going to kill you. You’ll just have to not crack.”

She swept out of the cell, and Keith let out a sigh. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could stand.

Xxx

“Come on, paladin. Just tell me where the base is!”

Keith managed a weak groan in response, staring at the stubs on his left hand where his fingers used to be.

“Come now, paladin. You can still fight and hold a sword. But if you continue in this way, you’ll lose _all_ of your fingers. You don’t want that, do you? Just tell me where the base is, and you’ll be set free.”

“Ngh- no- no-”

The druid shrugged. “Your choice.”

The knife flashed, and Keith squeezed his eyes shut, nearly biting a hole in his lip to avoid making any noises. There was a sharp pinching, and then an ache where his index finger had been. He could feel blood dripping on the chair, and he tugged at the restraints holding his wrist frantically in an attempt to escape the pain as the druid cut through another finger. He let out a strangled whimper.

The druid glared at him. “You’ve lost all of your fingers, paladin! Is the Blade worth this?!”

He reversed the blade and jammed it right through Keith’s hand, repeating with another blade through his other hand. Keith screamed, his voice becoming an incoherent babble as he pleaded with the druid to stop, hating himself for begging, but unable to stop himself. He wrenched against the blades and regretted it instantly as they tore further into his hands.

The druid stood there coldly through his cries, and his scream faded to a harsh sob that he didn’t have the energy to mask.

“Please,” he whimpered, “Please…”

Xxx

Axca’s fingers dug into the table as the video feed from the torture chamber relayed Keith’s screams and cry for help. Zethrid shook her head sadly.

“There he goes. I’d heard that he was a good fighter. Shame, now he’s broken. It won’t take long for the druids to get the information from him. And then they’ll throw him out. I never even really got the chance to fight him.”

Ezor rolled her eyes. “Is fighting _all_ you care about? But I agree, it’s a shame that he’s breaking. He would’ve made a cute little sidekick. Or a nice little friend for Axca. Ooo, maybe he could’ve gotten his kitty to come here!”

Axca fought the urge to snap at both of them. She’d ignored her instincts that he was important and had let this happen to him. It was _her_ fault that this was happening to Keith.

“Hello, Axca. Zethrid. Ezor.”

Axca whirled around. “Lotor?!”

Her former employer and friend smiled that charming smile of his. “Yes, hello. I’ve come to check on Haggar’s progress.”

“Haggar’s gone for the moment,” Axca said dully, “But you can see the progress right there. He’ll spill soon.”

Lotor eyed the screen and what looked like worry crossed his face for a moment. “Ah. I see. But you’re wrong, Axca. He’s not broken. He’s hurt, yes. But he’s always been a tough one. This won’t break him.” He sighed. “I guess that I’d better do it myself.”

Xxx

Keith whimpered as the druid pulled the knives out of his hands with a squelch, moving to stand behind the chair. The back of the chair disappeared.

“Base.”

“N-no,” Keith panted, pushing the location of the Blade’s headquarters out of his mind. “Never going to happen.

At first, Keith felt nothing. Then, a searing pain in each of his shoulder blades, the knives crunching through bone, skin and flesh. He screamed, his throat cracking and the coppery taste of blood rising to his mouth. In the barest part of his conscious, he could hear the druid asking where the base was, but he couldn’t answer.

Another knife found its way into him, this one in his lower back, a cold numbness settling through his whole lower body. A thrill of panic shot through him as he realized that the knife had gone through his spinal cord.

A cold, vaguely British voice sounded outside of his flickering conscious. “You’re doing it all wrong.”

“I beg your pardon,” the druid hissed.

Lotor bent down next to Keith. “The other paladins are frantic,” he murmured to Keith, “They _need_ you.”

“What are you saying?” the druid asked suspiciously.

“That’s between me and him. Now, I’ll show you how to torture someone. Knife.”

The druid reluctantly handed Lotor the knife, and Lotor turned to the barely-conscious Keith, eyes glinting. Then, he whirled around, plunging the glittering knife into the druid, which hissed and shrieked, disappearing in a flash of darkness.

Lotor’s sword made quick work of Keith’s chains, and he knelt next to the paladin, peering into the semi-conscious boy’s eyes.

“Keith, listen to me. Come on, focus.” Keith’s eyes latched onto his desperately, and Lotor nodded. “Good. Alright, tell me, can you walk at all?”

Keith closed his eyes in answer, and Lotor cursed silently. He didn’t have the _time_ for this! He yanked the knives out of Keith’s shoulders, wrapping the wounds tightly with the destroyed druid’s robes and tying the paladin’s wrists in front of his body, settling his arms around Lotor’s neck. It pulled on Lotor’s throat, but not enough to choke him, and he needed to keep his hands free for fighting.

“Stay awake,” Lotor snapped at Keith, whose eyes were slowly drifting shut, “You can’t go to sleep!”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Keith mumbled crossly.

Lotor felt an odd mixture of annoyance and relief. He’d told Axca that Keith wasn’t broken in the hopes that he was right, but this- the red paladin was clearly still his normal, aggravating self. But, of course, if he _was_ going to be his normal, aggravating self, then he would fall asleep. And he wouldn’t wake up.

“Actually,” Lotor told Keith, “you should probably go to sleep. Things are going to get intense, and it’s probably better that you sleep through it.”

“I can handle it,” Keith protested weakly, “I can handle it just fine! I’m staying- ow- I’m staying awake!”

Lotor let out a sigh of relief. Had Keith been in his right mind, he would’ve seen Lotor’s ploy for the reverse-psychology that it was. But as it was, the paladin would probably stay awake out of pure spite. Lotor unsheathed his sword and started down the hallway, trying to be careful of Keith’s shoulders, but also trying to move as quickly as possible.

“Where do you think that _you’re_ going?” a voice drawled as Lotor opened another door.

Lotor cursed when he saw Shiro- not Shiro, but Shiro under Haggar’s control. The human was standing in his way, glowing eyes hard and his arm activated.

“Sh-Shiro,” Keith called weakly.

“Hush,” Lotor told him, “That’s not Shiro anymore!”

But Keith shifted restlessly on Lotor’s back, making animal noises of pain and confusion. “Shiro!”

The witch’s champion hesitated and froze in place, his arm flickering on and off. Lotor could see the struggle in his eyes- his affection and desire to protect Keith battling the witch’s influence. Lotor slipped past him, sliding carefully past the glowing arm. He was here to rescue Keith, not fight Shiro.

Lotor sprinted through the hallways, his sword quickly dispatching of any robots that got in his way. He could hear Keith’s breathing getting more shallow and unsteady by the minute and he sped up even farther, his feet pounding on the metal floors. The alarms started blaring, probably set off by a newly-evil Shiro, recovered from his bout of “weakness.”

He skidded to a halt in front of his ship. Axca, Ezor and Zethrid were all standing in the way. He met the eyes of his former generals, his gaze finally locking onto Axca’s.

“Axca.”

That was all he said. Just one word, just her name. She glanced at Keith, and her face hardened. Then, she turned and walked away. Ezor and Zethrid glanced at each other in surprise, but followed her, walking in single file out the door.

Lotor shot up his ship’s ramp, gently depositing Keith belly-down on the floor and sliding into the pilot’s seat, flipping switches and getting his ship ready to fly.

“Computer, secure injured passenger!”

The computer got to work, automatically scanning Keith for injuries and lashing him down securely. Lotor maneuvered the ship out of the hangar, but fighters were already moving to intercept him, and he put his ship into a desperate roll, firing lasers as fast as he could.

Allura’s face showed up on his screen. “Lotor! Status!”

“Trying to clear the fighters for wormholing, sending you a scan of Keith’s injuries.” Lotor glanced at the readout himself and cursed violently. “The druid’s used some- poison of some sort. You won’t be able to put Keith in a cryo pod, so get anything you’ll need for surgery ready.”

Allura’s face paled, but she nodded determinedly. “Copy that. Give us a shout when the way for the wormhole is clear.”

Lotor nodded and cut off the communications, putting his full concentration into destroying the fighters and getting as far away from the druid ship as possible. Pidge answered the next time he called, shouting for Allura, and moments later, a wormhole opened up. On the other side was the Castle, the bay doors open. Lotor slid into them, the restraints on the now-unconscious Keith sliding off at his command.

Allura and Coran were in the ship with a medical gurney in an instant, loading Keith on and running towards the medical bay. Lotor got out of his seat and then collapsed to the ground, cursing as his legs gave out beneath him. He’d been up all night for a week since Keith had been captured, trying to negotiate with Haggar to let him come to her ship, and the strain of the rescue had taken a toll on him.

Matt, Pidge and Lance all poked their faces in the ship, moving cautiously towards him.

“Do you… need any help?” Lance asked apprehensively.

Lotor could see the unease and discomfort on all three’s faces. He supposed it was understandable. He _had_ attacked them a few times, and he was… well, he was a Galra. So was Keith, of course, but they’d known him for much longer and not much had changed, from what Lotor could tell. Not to mention that Keith didn’t _look_ like their long-time enemy, while Lotor did.

“No, thank you,” he replied with a quick smile. Truth be told, he _could_ use some help, but he knew that the offer had been made out of courtesy, and not an actual desire to help. “I just need a moment. You should go and check on your friend.”

They all nodded, shooting out of the ship as was politely possible. Lotor heaved a sigh and gripped the back of his chair, hauling himself to his unsteady feet. He needed to see the red paladin.

Xxx

Lance stared down into the medical bay from the observation deck. He didn’t like this. He didn’t like how small Keith looked, covered in his own blood with a mess of IV lines and tubes sticking into him. He didn’t like how there didn’t seem to be a single inch of his friend that wasn’t covered in scratches.

Lance glanced to the side. Hunk was sitting down on one of the couches, his hands clenched. The big boy had turned out to be O- blood, and Allura had drawn some of his blood to transfer to Keith. Hunk hadn’t liked it much- blood made his squeamish- but he’d been more than willing to do it. Pidge was clutching Matt tightly, both of them pale. And then… Lotor. Standing to the side, his normally composed face worried.

Lotor. He’d _known_. He’d known for sure that something was wrong with Shiro. The instant that Keith had been kidnapped, Lotor had come right up to them and told them that he knew where Keith was and was already working on getting him back. They’d been angry with him at first for not coming to them with his suspicions, but all he’d said had been:

“Would you have believed me if I had?”

They’d all stared at the ground uncomfortably, of course. None of them liked to admit that they wouldn’t have. That they would’ve believed Shiro over Lotor. Lotor had commed Haggar the instant he’d figured it out, proposing that he join forces with her to resurrect the Empire. Then, he’d worked tirelessly to gain access to her ship in order to rescue Keith. They all owed him, and they knew it, but being around Lotor was… uncomfortable. Hunk was fairly willing to try conversation with the Galra Emperor, but other than Allura and Coran, none of them really tried with Lotor. Keith had trained with him on the training deck; they’d seemed fairly friendly, despite the number of times Lotor had beaten Keith. Lance felt suddenly guilty as he thought that Lotor might have worked so hard to rescue Keith because he was afraid that he would lose one of the only friends that he’d had.

Down in the med bay, the heart monitoring machine bleeped frantically and then flatlined. Lance’s heart stopped with it. Allura was shouting something and using a defibrillator, and Keith’s heart started to beat again, faintly, but still beating. Lance sank down into the couch, clutching his chest. Matt whispered reassuringly to Pidge, who had buried her face in her brother’s cloak. Lance saw Lotor unclench his fists, and he saw a flash of scarlet where Lotor’s claws had cut into his own palms.

Four agonizing hours later, an exhausted Allura pushed the door open, depositing her bloody gloves in a trash can, which incinerated them instantly. All of the other paladins mobbed her, bubbling over with questions. Allura held one hand up.

“He’s going to live,” was all she said.

Pidge, Matt and Hunk all clung to each other, releasing nervous laughs. Tears were running down all three faces, and they kept repeating the words, that Keith was going to live.

“We- we need to start working on fingers,” Pidge stammered, “His hands- he’s going to need fingers. We can build him some robotic ones, and- and we’ll have to figure out how to connect them to the little stumps- I bet he’d like it if he could make them into claws or knives or something- yeah- okay-”

Matt and Hunk nodded along, the three of them already planning blueprints for the fingers, their words dissolving into tech-y mumbo-jumbo that Lance lost track of in the first few minutes. He frowned. Something wasn’t right. Allura had said that Keith would _live_. An odd choice of words.

“Allura,” he whispered, sliding in closer to the princess, “Is Keith going to be _okay_?”

Allura closed her eyes. “The knife- it went right through his spinal cord. The blade severed it. He’s-” She bit her lip. “He’s going to be paralyzed from the waist down. And- we can’t fix it. Maybe if we’d been able to put him in a pod the damage could’ve been repaired. But we couldn’t. And it won’t.” A single tear dripped down her face. “He’s not going to be able to walk. Keith’s out of the fight.


End file.
